308 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



April 27, 1905. 



alvei, is carrieii soon sliows the disease and will perisli as the colony 

 from which the honey was carried, and in this way whole apiaries are 

 destroyed. 



Now, if it were only for the bee-keeper's own apiary where foul 

 brood exists, it would probably not be necessary for the State to inter- 

 fere, but bees from neighboring apiaries will come to this diseased 

 apiary and carry home the disease by robbing: in the diseased apiary, 

 thus spreading the disease and destruction. 



Bees will travel as far as 6 miles in quest of honey, and it seems 

 they have means, as experience teaches, to find a weak colony or a 

 hive without live bees on long distances. 



The State Inspector is needed to examine bees, which the progres- 

 sive bee-keeper has no authority to inspect. There is no possibility 

 for the Missouri State Bee-Keepers' Association, or the individual bee- 

 lieeper to preserve the bee-industry of the State from final destruction ; 

 the State must help them. 



The disease exists now only in spots here and there over the State, 

 and it can be eradicated if proper measures are taken in time. 



The honey industry of Missouri is not small. There are over 

 41 000 bee-keepers in this State, according to the United States census 

 of' 1900, who produced in 1903 over 6,000,000 pounils of honey, ac- 

 cording to the reports of the Missouri State Board of Agriculture. 



If you will permit me to appear before you to show some combs 

 containing the larv* killed through foul brood, I will be pleased to 

 come to .Jefferson City, and then will be able to explain more fully 

 ihe workings of the disease, and be able to back it up by proper 

 literature. 



The Apiary Bill is killed for the present by your veto, but it will 

 be introduced again in the next Legislature, and that is the reason I 

 take the liberty of addressing you. 



I also take the liberty of enclosing a copy of a letter sent by Prof. 

 Frank Benton, of the Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, 

 to Senator Voorhees, which shows that Prof. Benton considers legisla- 

 tion necessary for the preservation of the honey industry of tfiis State. 



I wish to remark that I have not been a candidate for Inspector, 

 and this Bill had not been gotten np to give a job to some individual. 

 I send you enclosed a circular to ihe members of the Missouri State 

 Bee-Keepers' Association, which was sent out by me before I read your 

 veto in to-day's paper. There were two candidates for Inspector 

 already, but I was trying to find the best man available, and then to 

 submit his name as the candidate of the Missouri State Bee-Keepers' 

 Association to the Missouri State Board of Agriculture, aud to peti- 

 tion the Board to appoint him. Mr. George B. Ellis, Secretary of the 

 State Board of Agriculture, will bear me out in this. 



Respectfully, Robt. A. Holekamp, 



Assistant Secretary Missouri Utate Bee-Keepers' Association. 



The letter referred to as written by Mr. Benton to Senator Voor- 

 hees, is as follows ; 



Washington, D. C, Feb. 16, 1905. 

 Senator Voorhees, State Senate, Columbia, Mo. 



* Dear Sir : — One of the correspondents of this office has called my 

 attention to Senate Bill No. 268, which is entitled "An Act to provide 

 for the appointment of a State Inspector of Apiaries, and to regulate 

 the duties thereof." 



During several visits that I have made to your State, I have seen 

 the necessity for some such legislation, having learned of considerable 

 devastation in different portions of the State through contagious dis- 

 eases of an extremely destructive character, and I am therefore greatly 

 interested in the success of such legislation. 



The only change which I would suggest is to make it slightly 

 more general, through using in the first section of the Bill the words, 

 " for the prevention and suppression of contagious diseases among 

 honey-bees, such as foul brood, black brood, paralysis," etc., instead 

 of the sentence, which, in the present Bill, confines it more especially 

 to one disease alone. The possibility should always be taken into 

 consideration of the introduction of other diseases, as well as the fact 

 that at least one other disease besides foul brood, namely, paralysis, 

 does exist within the State at the present time. 



The great benefit which honey-bees do to the horticultural and 

 agricultural interests of the State, through complete pollenation of 

 the blossoms of fruit-trees and various clover and seed crops, resulting 

 in greater production as well as better quality of fruits and seeds, 

 renders the protection of bees of great importance to the horticultural 

 and agricultural interests of the State. 



The States of New York, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, 

 Colorado, Texas, Utah and California have laws which, in most in- 

 stances, have been of great benefit in the suppression of contagious 

 diseases among bees. Perhaps among these the Illinois law has been 

 most ineffective, simply through lack of proper compensation to the 

 Inspector, and perhaps, in some instances, no appropriation to execute 

 the law properly. On the other hand, in New York, Colorado, Wis- 

 consin and California vast good has resulted, while no interests have 

 been injured thereby. 



I commend most heartily to the careful consideration of every 

 Senator this subject, and hope sincerely that the pending legislation 

 will receive unanimous support. 



Yours very respectfully, Frank Benton, 



In Charge of Apiculture, 



In the Modern Farmer and Busy Bee for April, Editor Abbott de- 

 votes several pages to a thorough review of Gov. Folk's veto, which 

 appears on page 201 of this Journal. Mr. Holekamp did well to write 

 to Gov. Folk. The only fear is that he may never see the letter 

 among so large a correspondence as a governor would naturally re- 

 ceive Ot course it was too late to undo the wrong done the bee- 

 keepers of Missouri. They will have to try again at the next session 



of their Legislature, and in the meantime endeavor to see to it that the 

 Governor is so well informed on the subject that he will not repeat 

 his unwise action. 



On another page appears an article on this subject, from Dr. G. 

 Bohrer, of Kansas. 



IrttsceUcraeous 

 Hetps <- Stems 



==/ 



Hon. K. L/. Taylor, of Michigan, has been elected chairman 

 of the Board of Directors of the National Bee-Keepers' Association, to 

 succeed W. F. Marks, of New York, who resigned. 



Photographs of Apiaries. — We could use some more good 

 photographs of apiaries of our subscribers if they will kindly send 

 them in. We should also like brief descriptions to accompany them. 

 In case we would not be able to use any that are received, we will re- 

 turn them if so requested. We will also return any we do use if it is 

 desired. If you have a nice apiary, and no picture of it, why not 

 have one taken during the summer when it appears at its best? 



The Apiary ot Edw. Scoggin, ot Eddy Co., New Mex., is 

 pictured on the first page this week. Mr. Scoggin has this to say 

 about it : 



I send a photograph of my apiary and a portion of my dwelling- 

 house and family, taken in 1902. My family consisted of myself, 

 wife, four boys and one girl. My apiary contained 120 colonies, and 

 produced 5 '.j tons ot honey that season — 3000 pounds of comb honey 

 and the balance extracted. 



I commenced keeping bees in the fall of 1894, with 10 colonies. 

 The next season I sold honey to the value of over $14 to the colony, 

 and increased by dividing to 41 colonies. I commenced using dove- 

 tailed hives with full sheets of foundation, and still use full sheets, 

 and right here is where I think my success lies. 



I have 160 colonies in hives well painted, with frames wired and 

 full sheets of foundation in every frame. Edw. Scoggin. 



" Drove of Wild Bees Swimming." — Mr. .J. M. Burtoh, of 

 Whiteside Co., 111., sends us the following somewhat flowery quota- 

 tion from a recent novel, which will be quite amusing to bee-keepers: 



"The king sat in his private garden in the shade of a potted 

 orange-tree, the leaves of which were splashed with brilliant yellow. 

 The velvet hush of the midday hour had fallen. There was an endless 

 horizon of turquois blue, a zenith pellucid as glass. The trees stood 

 motionless; not a shadow stirred, save that which was cast by the 

 tremulous wings of a black and-purple butterfly, which, near to his 

 majesty, fell, rose and sank again. From a drove of wild bees swim- 

 ming hither and thither in quest ot the final sweets of the year, came 

 a low, murmurous hum, such as a man sometimes fancies he hears 

 while standing alone in the vast auditorium of a cathedral." 



Surely, a "drove of wild bees swimming" would be quite a 

 " novel " sight — seen only in a novel. 



Geo. W. Brodbeck — Additional Notes. — Last week we 

 gave a biographical sketch of Mr. Brodbeck, written by Prof. A. J. 

 Cook. Since then we have received the following from J. M.' Ham- 

 baugh, who also knew Mr. Brodbeck well : 



Geo. W. Brodbeck was loved and respected by all who knew him, 

 and he had the entire confidence of the bee-keepers of the Sunny Slope. 

 His heart was in the work, and he labored early and late to place the 

 apiarian interests on a higher and more lucrative plane, the last two 

 or three years of his life, as president of the California National 

 Honey-Producers' Association. 



The beekeepers of the Coast and Nation have lost a faithful and 

 sincere friend, and the name of Geo. W. Brodbeck will long be remem- 

 bered as one of our brightest and most distinguished lights of the in- 

 dustry in California. May his spirit be at rest. His wife and family 

 have our heartfelt sympathy in this their dark hour of sorrow. 



J. M. Hambaugh. 



Mr. Hambaugh also enclosed a letter dated March 23, written by 

 Mrs. Brodbeck, from which we take the following paragraphs ; 



"My husband's birthplace was Lawrenceburg, Ind. He grew to 

 years of manhood in that town. He was married there, Dec. 3, 1878. 

 He removed to Edinburg, Ind., where he resided about 5 years, going 

 from there to Indianapolis. In that city he became Interested in bees, 

 and owned a small apiary. In October, 1889, he came to Los Angeles, 

 where he resided until the time of his death. 



" In .January, 1904, he had a severe attack of pneumonia, and for 

 days it was thought he could not live. He rallied from that some- 



